Consulting the Sages - a Poll by Edition

[Tequila Sunrise]

I've never heard of The Sage, is he like Click and Clack from Car Talk?

"Hi, this is the Sage and I'm here to talk about dungeons, dragons and of course the answer to last week's riddle. But before I get to that, I'll take some calls. Hello, caller, you're on D Talk."

"Ah, hi, this is Karnor the Angsty from Greyhawk."

"Hi Karnor, how can I help you today?"

"Well me and my chums are about to explore Castle Greyhawk for the first time, and I'm worried about what we'll find. I've heard it's a killer dungeon, and we're not exactly optimized."

"Castle Greyhawk certainly can be a killer, tell me about your party."

"Well I'm an elven barbarian. Tim is a halfling warmage, Dimbleton is a gnome rogue without Weapon Finesse and Mitsubishi is a samurai."

"A samurai in Greyhawk, you don't see that every day!" *laughs* "Well Karnor you may be in some trouble. Without a healer, healing's going to be expensive and inefficient in combat. There are a lot of undead in the Castle, which would have made it nice to have a cleric. There may also be a lot of traps, unless the DM removes them because you have no rogue. But the fact that the DM let a samurai into Greyhawk, and the fact that samurais suck..." *laughs* "...makes me suspect that the DM isn't very aware of your party's capabilities. I can't know for sure; you might be walking into a great adventure, or you may be walking into a TPK. Good luck, and good looting, Karnor!"

 

[Bullgrit]

Next time I play a mage that needs to contact other plane, I gotta remember to say "lemme google this".

Google:

Search: What monsters lurk in the castle on Bone Hill?
Results: 16,700 – first page has two relevant results, but neither answer the question.

Search: Bone Hill
Results: 20,300,000 – first page has two relevant results
First result goes to Wikipedia about The Secret of Bone Hill. The information on the wiki page mentions undead, but nothing really more useful to adventurers heading to the hill.
Second result goes to a computer program modding forum. There may be relevant information buried in one of the Bone Hill threads, but I didn’t dig deeper.


ENWorld:

Question: What monsters lurk in the castle on Bone Hill?
Results: Answer posted in 37 minutes.


ENWorld gives better sage results, but it takes longer.

Bullgrit

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Google:

Search: What monsters lurk in the castle on Bone Hill?
Results: 16,700 – first page has two relevant results, but neither answer the question.

Search: Bone Hill
Results: 20,300,000 – first page has two relevant results
First result goes to Wikipedia about The Secret of Bone Hill. The information on the wiki page mentions undead, but nothing really more useful to adventurers heading to the hill.
Second result goes to a computer program modding forum. There may be relevant information buried in one of the Bone Hill threads, but I didn’t dig deeper.


ENWorld:

Question: What monsters lurk in the castle on Bone Hill?
Results: Answer posted in 37 minutes.


ENWorld gives better sage results, but it takes longer.

Bullgrit

That sounds a lot like the difference between using divination spells vs using a gather information type skill.

 

[The Shaman]

OD&D - I don't know.

Sages were introduced to OD&D in Suppplement II: Blackmoor (page 50 for the curious).

AD&D1 - I think the only mention of the concept is in the DMG.

That the specific description of a sage is not found in PHB references to hirelings presumes that this is the only way that characters learn about their world. In my experience, most players learned the details of the game-world through their characters in play; asking the question, "Who can tell us about the Cliffs of Madness?" could get you a reference to a sage, as could a town description which includes something along the lines of, "The tall tower is the home of Zuccharo the Sage, an advisor to the prince."

This is part of thinking like your character, rather than relying on metagame knowledge of the game-world or the rulebook.

 

[jmucchiello]

the beholder pyramid ships

Wait, do these pyramid shaped ships have a single glowing eye at the top of the pyramid? Oh that is just awesome.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

"Almighty Ghugul, spirit of intellect, fountain of wisdom, sage of sages, hear me and bless me with your knowledge! Should we proceed to the second level of the dungeon, will we meet with weal or woe?"

Lol. Beware wicked Pedia who mixes lies with truth and half truth, she has lured many an adventurer and essayist to his doom.

 

[haakon1]

I wouldn't use the word "Sage," but my players frequently try to gain information about the dungeon/adventure/whatever.

Usually they go about it by speaking with the locals.

Nod, there's a lot of information seeking in my campaigns, and some of it highly resembles going to sages, but we don't precisely call it that.

1) In role-playing heavy 3.5 email campaign I run, in the last city, the sage-like monk sought out the priest of the god of knowledge (his religion) and talked history. And found out there was a library. The monk and the wizard spent a day reading there. They also talked to a military officer (who was giving them a mission) and downloaded a lot of tactical info.

2) In live more action-oriented 3.5 campaign I run, the wizard was seeking info about a cryptic old dwarven record he found, and talked to a priest of the god of knowledge, who directed him to a dwarven jeweler, who directed him to an old dwarven moneylender in another town, who knew all about the dungeon mentioned and used to live there. Their latest mission was for him, to get a map and info about entering this lost dwarven ruin.

3) In the 4e campaign, we spent most of the session talking to NPC's in town -- actually, everyone except the old guy in the tower!

 

[Quantarum]

To me the concept is broader than presented, a "sage" might be a cloistered scholar of some sort, but he could also be the gossiping barkeep, the grizzled veteran with too many stories or the local kook who's rantings strike a chord with the players. I think it's just a chance for a good role playing encounter.

-Q.

 

[john112364]

I wouldn't use the word "Sage," but my players frequently try to gain information about the dungeon/adventure/whatever.

Usually they go about it by speaking with the locals. "Hey, what do you know about the haunted castle up in the hills?" If an NPC gives them a quest, they always interrogate the NPC about any expected opposition. "Tell us about these 'devil creatures' that kidnapped your daughter."

Which, frankly, makes more sense to me than going to "a sage". Why would an old guy in a tower know anything about the monsters in the local dungeon? Far more likely that the town guard, traveling merchants, and local hunters would have an idea what perils to expect there.

This has been my experience as well. Not sages per say, but asking questions from temples, wizards and that sort of stuff. Oh yeah and lets not forget the "Gather information" skill and divination spells.

 

[john112364]

Wait, do these pyramid shaped ships have a single glowing eye at the top of the pyramid? Oh that is just awesome.

I knew it! The US government is controlled by a secret cabal of Beholders!!!